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Predator Advocates Protest Shooting of Cougar in Bend

Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife

A wildlife advocacy organization says the shooting of a cougar at a Bend park this weekend was unnecessary and a gross over-reaction.

Bend Police shot the cougar after it was sighted at Pilot Butte State Park Saturday. Brooks Fahey of Predator Defense in Eugene says there were other options than shooting and killing the big cat.

Fahy: "This animal wasn’t posing a threat to anyone. All the police really needed to do was just to put up signs, have people leave the butte. And the animal simply would have disappeared. It wouldn't have been there the next day."

Fahy says state officials are also too quick to shoot cougars in Oregon. He points out that there has never been a fatal cougar attack on a human in the state in recorded history. A police spokesman says the cougar was killed because of the danger it posed to the community.
 

Rachael McDonald is KLCC’s host for All Things Considered on weekday afternoons. She also is the editor of the KLCC Extra, the daily digital newspaper. Rachael has a BA in English from the University of Oregon. She started out in public radio as a newsroom volunteer at KLCC in 2000.
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